News on Top { MTN } Group President and CEO, Mr. Sifiso Dabengwa
The hint, MTN Group Wednesday announced that it had reached the 200 million
subscriber number across its operations in 22 countries, Nigeria
inclusive.
The news of MTN reaching the 200 million subscriber mark, came after 19 years of its operation as MTN Group.
Next year, MTN group would be celebrating 20 years of connecting
people and economies, from South Africa, which was its first country of
launch, to South Sudan, its most recent market.
MTN Nigeria, where the MTN Group had its largest market share in terms
of revenue generation, has over 50 million subscribers on its network in
12 years of operation in Nigeria.
MTN Nigeria is unarguable the largest network in Nigeria.
Announcing the new subscriber number, MTN Group President and CEO, Mr.
Sifiso Dabengwa, said the company had a particular opportunity to make a
meaningful contribution to social development.
According to him, “Due to the lack of access to quality education and
infrastructure, and low literacy rates in most of the countries where
MTN operates, it has chosen to direct a significant amount of its
corporate social initiative (CSI) spend towards education over the next
two years. This will provide people with the skills, knowledge and
confidence they need to make positive decisions about their lives.”
MTN runs a comprehensive multi-country CSI programme through MTN
Foundations spanning education, health and other national priorities.
He said going forward, the company would scale up its contribution
towards building knowledge economies in its markets by investing in more
education initiatives aimed at empowering learners and teachers using
ICTs and mobile learning.
"As seen in MTN’s 2013 interim results released yesterday, MTN is a
growth company with a solid performance record and an aspirational
vision to lead the delivery of a bold new digital world to its
customers," he said, adding that it would continue to share the fruits
of its success with customers and communities through, among others,
offering affordable and innovative services, as well as investing in
social upliftment and network infrastructure to improve the quality of
its services.
“We are grateful to our customers for their loyalty and contribution to
the growth of the MTN brand over the years. Using that feedback, MTN is
making significant investments towards improving the quality of our
service, while also providing solutions designed to make a real
difference in the lives of our customers,” Dabengwa said.
He explained that the MTN brand had achieved great prominence over the years.
For two consecutive years, MTN emerged as the highest ranked African
brand in the prestigious Millward-Brown Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable
Global Brands 2013 survey.
Most recently, MTN emerged South Africa’s most valuable brand in this
year’s BrandFinance Most Valuable Brands Survey, for a second
consecutive year, he said.
“The award is further acknowledgement of our on-going efforts to
enhance customer experience in the various touch-points in the markets,”
Dabengwa added.
According to him, to achieve the ambition, which will allow MTN to
provide a seamless service experience to customers across its markets,
the company has launched a project aptly called ‘Perfect 10’. Already
launched in Ghana, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia and South Africa, the
initiative aims to give customers a 10 out of 10 experience of the MTN
network, products and services. Benefits of the programme are already
filtering through to customers. In Ghana, for example, where the
programme was first launched, feedback received in the early stages of
implementation has been very positive.
Looking ahead, Dabengwa said the company’s new vision to lead the
delivery of a bold new Digital World, and mission to make customers’
lives a whole lot brighter, has positioned MTN well for further growth
into the future.
Dabengwa said “MTN’s previous vision to be the leader in
telecommunications in emerging markets’ has largely been achieved. The
need for a broader digital offering led MTN to refresh its vision and
mission and refine its strategic objectives. We believe MTN is now ready
for the next frontier of growth - digital services. And we are humbled
that over 200 million of our subscribers are embarking on this journey
with us, to lead the delivery of a bold new digital world.